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I bought a fan a lot like that for a coal forge I made, and I jacked around looking for ways to control the motor speed (you can't on the fan I have, wrong kind of motor, it will apparently mess up the motor if you put a speed control on it) but here's an easy, 10-minute fix to regulate the airflow:

Cut a round piece of sheet metal that's about the same diameter as the intake for the fan. Weld or braze the round piece of sheet metal (I used the lid of a mayonnaise jar) to another rectangular piece of sheet metal, so that the round piece and the rectangular piece look roughly like a lollipop.

Drill a hole through the "handle" of the "lollipop" and drive a sheet metal screw through the "lollipop" into the housing of the fan. The "lollipop" needs to pivot on this screw. Now if you turn on the fan, and you pivot your "lollipop" intake cover so that it completely/partially/doesn't cover the round intake for the fan, you can go from about 15% of the fan's output to a full 100% ... and you don't have to jack around with speed controls or worry about messing up your fan motor. Plus it''s free and it works like a charm.

Now, with the money you would have spent on the speed control, go and get yourself a foot-operated switch to turn the fan on and off:

Oh – as for the "weather proof" issue, I rigged my fan with a quick-connect/disconnect setup, so that I can quickly attach or detach the fan. Basically, the fan just "hooks onto" the pipe that goes to the tuyere of the forge...slide it into the slots to attach the fan, lift and tilt to take it back off. That way, I can keep the electric fan indoors when I'm not using the forge. It works great. Real easy and fast.

Bought the drum this afternoon. The picture of part of an oblong oil tank by the tree is going to be the forge's body.

Now all I need is some good weather and the fan.

I'm using 4" square tube for the wind pipe and ash dump, the fans flanges will mount perfectly to it, going to weld a plate to the top of the 4" sq tube and weld a close nipple to it so I can screw the 4" wind pipe and ash dump to a pipe flange that will be mounted to the bottom of the brake drum.

Best to click on the pictures on the bottom of the page, the picture of the top of the drum is not showing in the slideshow. I'm not good at this slide show business, I guess it's got something to do with size of the picture.